Pokémon Quest

 
For almost a decade now, The Pokémon Company has been cranking out free-to-play games to varying acclaim. Some have become international phenomena, while others have fizzled into obscurity. I've made an effort to play each of them, both because I love Pokémon and because I'm a sucker for free, but only a select few have really stood out to me. This game was not one of them. Pokémon Quest was enjoyable enough to hold my attention until the final few stages (which didn't take very long to reach), but I started to get fatigued with the repetition and began relying very heavily on the auto-attack mode.

Pokémon Quest is a quasi-adventure game that has you exploring a voxely island in the search of treasure. The original 151 Pokémon, also voxelized, are available to help on the adventure, and they can be strengthened with the help of little medals that you collect at the end of each stage. In addition to the medals, each stage rewards ingredients that can be cooked at your base in order to attract Pokémon of specific types. The stages take place in specific sections of the island, where certain types of Pokémon are more prevalent, encouraging you to modify your team as you explore in order to maintain type advantages. Inside of stages, your team moves on their own, relying on you to dictate their attacks and dodges when confronting opponents. However, once your team is strong enough, the auto-mode can allow for some easy grinding, making resource-collection less of a chore. Unfortunately, the whole game came off as a chore in retrospect. I never played because I was having fun, I played because I wanted to finish, and I think that perspective reflects a failing from the game.

It's awesome that The Pokémon Company keeps creating accessible experiences for it's fans, and I would recommend this game to friends with a new Switch and no money. However, the experience found in Pokémon Quest just isn't engrossing enough to be worth playing with a library like mine. This game makes more sense for mobile gamers looking for something to pick up and play for a few minutes at a time, than people looking for a solid console experience.

The game is available for Switch here (as of 11/11/20): https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/pokemon-quest-switch/
The game is available for Android here (as of 11/11/20): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.pokemon.pokemonquest&hl=en_US
The game is available for iOS here (as of 11/11/20): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pok%C3%A9mon-quest/id1345187641

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